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Wednesday, November 25, 2015

RPG - Mazes and Minotaurs

I love Mazes and Minotaurs, the Ancient Greek themed RPG started all the way back in 1972.

I get a warm sense of nostalgia when I read books like this - the font, the artwork, the way that some of the rules are a bit loose and unrealistic, or, in some cases, state that they are supposed to be loose and unrealistic. I'm not sure exactly what it is, but I get that with other books like that such as with Tunnels and Trolls and some retro clones.

For example, Mazes and Minotaurs spits int the face of having different damage for all of the different kinds of weapons. Heroes deal 1d6 damage with most weapons, 1d3 damage with daggers, or 2d6 damage if they are large weapons.

The game is willing to throw away complexity in order to bring on an enjoyable experience, steeped in the flavour of Ancient Greek heroics. There are several classes that are not generic fighter, mage, thief, but rather Greek type classes such as amazon, spearman, centaur or elementalist.

Experience is earned based on your class. Classes are split into three types - warrior, magician or specialist (hunters and thieves are specialists). Warriors earn glory points by vanquishing monsters and accomplishing heroic feats. Magicians earn wisdom points for vanquishing supernatural creatures and exploring the unknown. Hunters get experience for killing beasts (animals) and using hunting, and thieves get experience for acquiring loot and using thievery.

The Greek gods feature heavily too and so do many ancient Greek artefacts. I always had a thing for Greek myths when I was little and this game allows you to live them.

The new edition provides material almost as entertaining as the game itself and that is anecdotes and letters from players of the game over the years, usually involving arguing over rules and situations. They are entertaining to read. I hope that more are published online.